Brain Injury

Hi, my name is PaintedKiwi101. I'm here because I want to feel less alone in relearning how to live life after a TBI

#MightyTogether #Anxiety #Depression #PTSD #Grief #BrainInjury

It’s said that men’s mental health can be a silent killer. 75% of suicides in Canada are by men. The subject seldom comes up in conversation. Media outlets make it a topic during Men’s Mental Health Month, held in June, I had to look it up.

It seems to me the best way to tackle a problem is to jump right in and start a conversation. 2017 after my accident I experienced a deep depression that was acerbated by the struggles with insurance companies. I found myself having thoughts of suicide but not just of hurting myself I wanted to bring attention to what I saw as an injustice by the insurance companies. I saw my life insurance policy as the last option to support my family.

I did see a psychologist. Our talks did help. At that time I didn’t open up as much as I should have. Feeling defeated and worried that if exposed too much I would be hospitalized. I didn’t reveal that the thoughts I had were actually plans.

There is our problem, the inability to open up. Pride, shame, likely it goes back to our inability to ask for directions. If we were able to ask for direction, maybe we could find a way to receiving the help we needed.

A psychiatrist gave me a diagnosis of persistent depressive disorder with anxious distress. I was prescribed antidepressants to help even out my day.

Eventually, after two years I stopped having those thoughts. My anger with the insurance companies did not go away. It was no longer the front of my mind. There were times and there still are, mostly when I am alone, that I will fixate on them and the pain and anger comes to the surface again.

For a couple years everything was going well. I found an outlet for my anger and frustration through writing. I published my first book and had completed my second due out soon.

Out of nowhere the thoughts came back. What was the trigger, I could not say. The only thing that had changed was that there had been an increase in my headaches. More frequently and more severe. I was given a new medication to help with the headaches. The new thoughts started after I started the medication. The medication has no expected side effects of suicidal ideation. Taking a break from the medication has not stopped my thoughts from coming. They are now less violent but still there.

The biggest concern I have is that when I had thoughts of suicide in the past I wanted to expose the injustice by the insurance companies and to provide a financial support for my family. The thoughts this time have none of that attached to them. The only concern is to complete the task and how best to insure that it happens.

The first thought came to me while sitting on the deck with my dog. The sun was warm on my face and this violent thought comes over me. The thought became consuming. There was a deep sadness that came over me.

That afternoon I talked to my wife and let her know I was having thoughts. She talked to our grown children and they put a plan together. I was not going to be left alone. We played games, I sat through study sessions and we shared conversations.

A antidepressant was added, temporarily until a referral to the psychologist goes through.

I also contacted a local community health clinic for a counselling program. After my initial consultation a counselling plan was made.

Talking and being open about my mental health has come easier as time has gone on. Over the past few years I’ve been able to join in with a group of people that have survived brain injuries. They are very open about their own experiences. I had never given it much thought but they have had a positive impact on my acceptance of my new life.

Start a conversation, ask for directions.
Do you have a minute to talk, I think I need some help? There is no shame in asking for directions.

When is the best time to start a conversation? When your person says hi. When you connect on the phone, sitting down to eat, out for coffee.

Start the conversation. It is better to know that you needed help and asked than to hear you kept to yourself and you will be missed.

This time I have to focus harder on the important things in my life, the most important things that keeps me from completely a plan in the darkness. My family, their future, my future, being there tomorrow for them.

Having all of these plans in place has not stopped the thoughts from creeping in. The plans will give me tools to work through these days. Maybe I could have found my way out of the darkness again on my own. It is easier to walk the path when you are not alone. #SelfharmRecovery #BrainInjury #Recovery

Hello everyone!

My name is Shiloh Cline. I have been misdiagnosed with a neurological condition from a Bio toxic brain injury that nearly took my life. After being dismissed and left with no answers I was left to figure it out on my own. Almost 3 years ago to the day I was a vegetable ion the floor unable to walk talk or remember my kids. I was brushed off after labs came back "normal" when my body and brain were being severely damage and shutting down. After years of fighting for my life for the truth. I now am using my voice to share and spread awareness to these conditions and a broken system that completely failed me and left me for dead.

Hi, my name is Morganthainmiller. I'm here because

#MightyTogether #BrainInjury #Depression #PTSD

Hi Mighties!

I’m Lauren (aka the Phoenix Rising) 💫

I’m a filmmaker and advocate, currently working on a documentary called Fall of the Phoenix—a magical realism journey through brain injury, healing, and reclaiming identity. It started with my sister’s concussion, but the deeper I dug, the more I realized I had my own history of undiagnosed TBIs. This film has become my way of understanding, healing, and giving voice to a community that’s often invisible.

I’m here to connect with others navigating brain injury, mental health, trauma, or just passionate about storytelling as a tool for change. If any of that resonates with you, I’d love to connect. 💛

You can learn more at fallofthephoenix.com or watch the teaser vimeo.com/1090834674!

Has anyone here used creativity to process or make sense of their #fallofthephoenix health journey?

#TraumaticBrainInjury #MentalHealth #ChronicIllness #invisibledisabilities #Documentary ##invisibledisabilities

People know the story. The coma. The brain injury. The machines. The moment they told my mother I wasn’t coming back.

But what they don’t know — what they can’t know — is what happened to my soul in the aftermath.

Because my real awakening didn’t happen in the hospital bed. It started after. In the silence. In the confusion. In the unrelenting questions that wouldn’t let me rest.

Who am I now?

What happened to the “me” that floated somewhere beyond this world?

And how the hell am I still here?

That’s what cracked me open — not just the trauma, but the mystery. The sense that there was more. Something deeper. Something ancient and invisible, humming just beneath the surface of everything.

I didn’t come back chasing normal. I came back chasing truth.

I started asking questions people don’t usually ask — not out loud, anyway.

What is consciousness?

Where does it live when the brain goes quiet?

If energy can’t die, did part of me cross over and return?

Or… did I die in one version of reality and just wake up in another?

It sounds crazy until you’ve lived through it.

I began to see that everything is energy. Not metaphorically — literally. Thoughts, emotions, bodies, trees, sounds, memories — all vibrating, all connected, all flowing. And I realized we’re not just in the universe… we are the universe, experiencing itself through fragile, flawed human form.

The brain isn’t the source of consciousness. It’s the radio — picking up frequencies from something far greater. What I touched in that coma wasn’t a dream. It was pure awareness. No fear. No time. Just a knowing. A presence. A deep, peaceful current that said, You’re not done yet. Go back.

And so I did.

But I didn’t come back the same.

Now I move through life like someone who’s seen behind the curtain — someone who remembers the stillness beneath the chaos. I can feel the world vibrating. Sometimes it’s beautiful. Sometimes it’s way too loud.

I live with pain. Headaches that pulse like thunder. Anxiety that wraps around my chest like a storm. Sensory overload. Exhaustion. A body that still feels stuck between realms.

But I also live with a kind of knowing. Not a belief — a knowing — that there’s more to all of this. That we are not broken. We are becoming.

Energy doesn’t die. It shifts. Evolves. And sometimes, it wakes up in a hospital bed, gasping for a second chance.

So here I am.

Still learning. Still unraveling. Still following the breadcrumbs left by that otherworldly peace I felt when the lights went out.

I don’t have all the answers. But I know I’m here for a reason.

And if you’re reading this, maybe you are too.

Maybe you’ve felt the weight of this world and still heard a whisper through it.

Maybe your pain is the beginning of your becoming.

Maybe your story — like mine — didn’t end where others thought it would.

We are more than our bodies.

More than our scars.

More than anyone has told us we are.

We are light wrapped in skin.

We are memory wrapped in soul.

We are here. Still.

And that something.

Hi, my name is jenannlynn. I'm here because I just heard about this website & I am checking it out. When I made an account, I said I have OCD, but actually I have OCPD (OOOCD-personality) I was also surprised not to see options for "stroke survivor" OR 'traumatic brain injury."

#MightyTogether #OCD #Anxiety